The history of Wing Chun is definitely connected to revolution activity during the Qing/Ming transition and very much a part of secret societies. However, I wouldn’t expect any official records found as the Chinese open up the Qing historical records. The Qing government would never have promoted information about anyone that was successful in fighting against it. Reasonably, any resistance would be downplayed if it was even acknowledge at all. Most of the legends of famous Wing Chun fighters, such as Leung Jan, date from after the destruction of the Red Opera. However, these fighters became famous because their families of Wing Chun moved away from political objectives and secret society action. From the oral tradition, Leung Jan was a great fighter. Those challenge were more about testing skill within the martial arts community rather than life-and-death, politically motivated struggles.
As always, Rene has done a good job at collecting and presenting a wealth of information on Wing Chun dating from the Red Boat to today. VTM research has focused on what was before red boat. Here’s some of the information I’ve collected over the last year.
Wing Chun originates from the Southern Shaolin Temple. The Buddhist community was a part of originators of Wing Chun, acting through a secret society known as the Fut Paai Hung Mun (Buddhist Sect Hung Mun). The name of this society refers to Buddhist involvement in the Hung Mun, a very large and loosely organized secret society. The met, practiced and developed themselves and fighting systems in the Weng Chun Tong (Everlasting Spring Hall). This organization was founded by members of the Buddhist order and were given free access to the Southern Shaolin Temple. The goal of the Weng Chun Tong was to continue to develop the methods of Chan practice, health and fighting.
Out of the Fut Paai Hung Mun, another secret society was created in the Southern Shaolin Temple (among possible others), the Hung Fa Wui. The name of this society comes from two influences - Ming supporters outside the Buddhist order and members of the Buddhist order.
The word Hung means red and symbolized the founder of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang fought and won against the Yuan Dynasty, which had been founded by the Mongols. He was the member of a secret society called the Hung Gun (Red Bandanas). The Han Chinese felt that they had been invaded by the Mongol and Zhu finally defeated the invaders. Using Hong for the name of the secret society called to mind Zhu’s historic battles against the Mongol invaders much like the anti-Qing revolutionaries fighting against the Manchu invaders.
The word Fa refers to the connection between the secret society and the Buddhist monks in the Southern Shaolin Temple. The Hung Fa Wui was open to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists but only had limited access to the Southern Shaolin Temple itself. The Shaolin Temple, being a Zen Buddhist temple, would be inappropriate as the headquarters for a purely political organization. Therefore, the Hung Fa Wui met in a place outside the temple, in a location called the Hung Fa Ting. Sifu Meng traveled to the Southern Shaolin Temple personally and was quite surprised and happy to learn that the only original building left was the Hung Fa Ting.
Within the Hung Fa Ting and Weng Chun Tong, one of the combat systems that were created was referred to as Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun. Outside the Hung Fa Ting, it was simply called Wing Chun. The name of the system referred to it’s roots: Hung – symbolizing the secret societies, Fa – symbolizing the Buddhist connection from the Shaolin Temple, and Yi – symbolizing righteous action: developing the self and defending society. The name HFY remained hidden because it was only used within the Secret Societies.
After the destruction of the Southern Shaolin Temple, the secret societies dispersed to areas outside the Temple. Among the survivors of the Wing Chun Tong/Hung Fa Wui, Cheung Ng was one of the only historically verifiable person, founder of the King Fa Wui Gun (aka Hung Fa Wui Gun). After a few generations, Wing Chun took a root in the Opera. One of the groups that was founded out of the King Fa Wui Gun, about 120 years later, was the Hung Syun (Red Boat).
During the Hung Syun era, a leader of the secret societies and a descendant of the HFY Wing Chun was known to have close connections with the Hung Syun, Hung Gun Biu.
In the HFY oral legend, the 4th generation was Hung Gun Biu. He was a high level leader in the secret societies, hence the nickname “Hung Gun” meaning red bandana. According to the HFY lineage, Hung Gun Biu had an influence on Wing Chun’s development within the Hung Syun. AT this time the secret society members continued to refer to themselves as HFYWC while non-secret society members referred to themselves as Hung Syun Wing Chun. Up until the last 50 years or so, much of Wing Chun was not open to the public. The major contributing factor of Wing Chun’s introduction to the public was due to the destruction of the Hung Syun as Rene mentioned. Over the years, many great martial artists have contributed to Wing Chun such as Leung Jan, Chun Wah Shun, Yuen Kay-San, Ip Man, Ng Chun So, and others… Each has developed loyal followers, part of the reason for so many expressions of Wing Chun. Going back to the original question about Wing Chun and fighting, within each of these families either the Grand Master himself or several of his students are great fighters. To use the Ip Man lineage (the largest family) as an example, Bruce Lee and Wong Shun Leung are synonymous with good Wing Chun fighting.
I know several articles are in the works at the VTM, covering Zen and Wing Chun connections as well as HFY symbolism, and a report wil soon be published on Master Meng’s recent trip to China and the Southern Shaolin Temple. In addition, there is a trip being planned for the upcoming research trip to China.
As always, previously publised articles are available on the VTM website.
Also on the VTM schedule is a Wing Chun History symposium this year. The goal would be to gather and review the most current information available on Wing Chun history from several angles. There would be no charge for this event and it is open to the public. Details will be forthcoming.
Jeremy R.
everyone else is doing a great job of researching “Post” Red Boat to present day and the VTM are working heavily on researching “Pre” Red Boat history.